E-mailers accused O’Reilly of being rude to Ingraham. He defended himself, saying he gave the talk show host two uninterrupted minutes to make her point. He did stop her as she began her comments, O’Reilly said, to correct Ingraham’s mischaracterization of what he had originally said. He also denied he and radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh are feuding.

“No one blew up. No one exploded,” he said “We just had a robust debate, which is what we do here.”

O’Reilly says he never called anyone “Bible thumpers,” but said that same-sex marriage opponents should not just “thump the Bible.”

“(O)ur belief is our policy,” e-mailer Bill Russell wrote to O’Reilly. “We believe there are only two sexes and that marriage is between a male and a female. We see other lifestyles as sin.”

O’Reilly responded, “(I)f you think you will influence any U.S. policy with a ‘sin’ analysis, you are misguided in the extreme. If you want to stop your country from going down the drain, fight smart.”